Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin¿ (Album Review)

Things are ticking over nicely for Danny Brown. His new chat show, Danny’s House, is airing on Viceland while his fifth album—the follow up to 2016’s well received ‘Atrocity Exhibition’—has managed to secure exec-production from hip hop royalty and A Tribe Called Quest co-founder Q-Tip. The result is a taut record of playfully evasive and inventive music that further cements his status as one of the most unique talents in rap.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Friday, 18 October 2019

Flying Colors - Third Degree (Album Review)

You don’t have to be Master Yoda or a tightrope walker to understand that, in most areas of life, balance is everything. Such a notion is particularly true when it comes to musical collaborations, as evidenced by this eagerly awaited return from melodic-prog supergroup Flying Colors. 

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Friday, 18 October 2019

Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury (Album Review)

Photo: Semi Song Sturgill Simpson is a country music outlier. His first three albums were rich, detailed journeys through left-field Americana that drew favourable comparisons to Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. His fourth, ‘Sound & Fury’, which is also a Netflix special, diverges from edgy but ultimately traditional-sounding songs in favour of scuzzy rock and guitar argy bargy. The results are mixed.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Thursday, 17 October 2019

Elbow - Giants Of All Sizes (Album Review)

We’re currently living through a time that’s as mystifying as it is terrifying.  Can any artist adequately convey that, and where would they begin? With the current state of our world leaders, or a certain referendum result and the ensuing madness? Possibly the devastation caused by unfathomable tragedies and senseless acts of terrorism? Fearlessly addressing those issues and more, Elbow’s ‘Giants Of All Sizes’ is a scalding state of the nation address and a prayer for a society that’s seemingly teetering on the brink of destruction.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 17 October 2019

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen (Album Review)

Photo: Matthew Thorne To the uninitiated, getting into Nick Cave’s work is a daunting prospect. ‘Ghosteen’ is the Australian musician’s 17th album with the Bad Seeds, and one that continues a 40 year career that has produced a catalogue of dark, Southern gothic music, often meditating on mortality, despair, religion and libido.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Wednesday, 16 October 2019

Vivian Girls - Memory (Album Review)

The magic conjured by Cassie Ramone, Katy Goodman and Ali Koehler as Vivian Girls feels unbridled and wild on their fourth full length, ‘Memory’.

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Wednesday, 16 October 2019

Wilco - Ode To Joy (Album Review)

Wilco’s 11th album is a quiet collection of Midwestern alt-indie that, like their catalogue at large, guides the listener through complex, often introverted emotions. It’s a record that presents inventive, wistful arrangements alongside scratchy reverie and occasionally dense lyric writing. As with much of Wilco’s output, you may have to take a deep dive to get anything out of it.

Written by: Jacob Brookman | Date: Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Kim Gordon - No Home Record (Album Review)

Photo: Natalia Mantini What are we to expect from a Kim Gordon solo album? Something that sounds like a reproduction of her old band, Sonic Youth? Unlikely. Pop songs? Same. ‘No Home Record’ is an intriguing answer, because it sounds like something Kim Gordon might make—surprising, unpredictable, difficult—but it’s been crafted from a palette that allows us to believe it’s actually nothing like something Kim Gordon might make. It is happy out there on its own.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 14 October 2019

Big Thief - Two Hands (Album Review)

Photo: Mikey Buishas Three years after putting out a debut album they winkingly dubbed ‘Masterpiece’, Big Thief might have written theirs. ‘Two Hands’ is the Brooklyn group’s second release of the year following the esoteric ‘U.F.O.F’ and it drags a pitch-perfect batch of indie-folk songs into the desert to watch them bleach under an unforgiving sun.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Saturday, 12 October 2019

Lightning Dust - Spectre (Album Review)

‘Spectre’ is Lightning Dust’s fourth album, and the first to arrive since singer-songwriter Amber Webber and founding member Josh Wells “retired their Black Mountain uniforms” in 2017 after over a decade as part of the Canadian collective.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Thursday, 10 October 2019

The Menzingers - Hello Exile (Album Review)

Photo: Jess Flynn Since releasing ‘On The Impossible Past’ in 2012, the Menzingers have been gradually reinventing themselves. The changes have been subtle, perhaps barely discernible from a distance, but important: flecks of Americana, an injection of narrative songwriting, the confidence to let their classic rock flag fly.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 09 October 2019

DIIV - Deceiver (Album Review)

Photo: Coley Brown After the brilliant dream-pop of 2016’s ‘Is The Is Are’, DIIV’s third album ‘Deceiver’ is anything but optimistically uplifting. They've had a tumultuous few years and the results are more visible—where ‘Is The Is Are’ seemed to almost dismissively sweep their problems under the rug with a shrug, here Zachary Cole Smith puts it all on the line.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Tuesday, 08 October 2019

Tegan and Sara - Hey, I'm Just Like You (Album Review)

‘Hey, I’m Just Like You’ is about four songwriters: Tegan and Sara Quin as teenagers pouring angst, love and hope into scrappy alt-rock songs, and Tegan and Sara Quin in their late 30s—important LGBT voices in a traditionally unfriendly industry with immaculate and influential pop records stacking up in their personal archive.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 08 October 2019

Moon Duo - Stars Are The Light (Album Review)

Photo: Brett Johnson Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada, the husband and wife duo at the heart of Portland electro-psych act Moon Duo, wanted to reflect a multitude of changes on their seventh album ‘Stars Are The Light’.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Friday, 04 October 2019

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - This Is The Place (Album Review)

Noel Gallagher’s penchant for a wig out is long-established. It’s been 23 years since he helped the Chemical Brothers to the outer reaches of ‘90s lad consciousness with Setting Sun, but of late he’s found other psychedelic avenues to wander along with a pair of EPs that have reshaped his solo sound.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 03 October 2019

Temples - Hot Motion (Album Review)

Temples gave themselves a mountainous obstacle to overcome when they released their 2014 debut ‘Sun Structures’. One of the best albums of the year, it was a welcome blast of glam-psych-pop that set a high benchmark for future releases and introduced frontman James Bagshaw’s enigmatic presence.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Wednesday, 02 October 2019

Girl Band - The Talkies (Album Review)

Girl Band make music that reflects an anxious existence. Far from being a space in which to retreat, their songs smash with a desolate rage, channelling inner torment and the desperation of their surroundings.

Written by: Craig Howieson | Date: Friday, 27 September 2019

The New Pornographers - In The Morse Code of Brake Lights (Album Review)

The New Pornographers are anything but idle, with the curiously-titled, self-produced ‘In the Morse Code of Brake Lights’, their eighth studio album since 2000’s ‘Mass Romantic’. Following 2017’s ‘Whiteout Conditions’ the Canadian power-pop collective have had plenty going on, with Neko Case’s excellent 2018 LP ‘Hell-On’ a prime example. Although, given the vocalist’s own successes, it should probably be noted that the New Pornographers are the ‘in between’ in her case.

Written by: Graeme Marsh | Date: Friday, 27 September 2019

Brittany Howard - Jaime (Album Review)

“The record is not about her,” Brittany Howard says of her late sister, whose name adorns the front cover of her debut solo album. “It’s about me.” Jaime taught Brittany, the frontwoman of Alabama Shakes, how to write poetry and play the piano before she died as a teenager from a rare form of cancer. In life and death, Jaime was a crucial influence for the singer-songwriter.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Friday, 27 September 2019

Blink-182 - NINE (Album Review)

Blink-182’s blend of juvenilia and earnest emoting has long been a high-wire act: one slip and the sense of balance is gone. But, given that they survived situating a song like Stay Together For The Kids at the heart of an album called ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket’, it’s one that they might boast to have mastered.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Thursday, 26 September 2019